updated 06:27 am EST, Mon December 23, 2013

Under-television home cinema audio a focus for LG in 2014

LG will be demonstrating a number of new audio products at CES in January, alongside its large-screened television. The sound bar and a SoundPlate all hope to declutter the living room of unnecessary home cinema audio equipment, while two wireless speakers offer various streaming audio modes that seemingly competes with Sonos for room-based music playback.

The LAB540W SoundPlate is a 4cm-thick (1.6 inches) device designed to sit underneath a 32-inch to 55-inch television. Offering 320-Watt sound, it has 4.1-channel audio, an external wireless subwoofer, and can project "full-bodied audio" in multiple directions. It also includes a built-in 3D Blu-ray player with Smart TV functionality, and can accept content streams from a second device over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

LAB540W SoundPlate

The NB5540 sound bar also sits under the TV screen, though not with the television resting on top as with the SoundPlate. Similar 4.1-channel, 320-Watt audio is supplied by the bar, which includes two forward-facing and two rear-facing channels, a Hi-Fi DAC, Analog class D amp, HDMI with Audio Return Channel support, and Bluetooth for streaming from mobile devices.

NB5540 Sound Bar

The wireless speakers consist of the NP8740 and NP8540, which have 70W and 40W audio respectively. Both offer Wi-Fi over 2.4GHz and 5GHz, Bluetooth connectivity, and MESH networking, with "Personal" and "Party" modes allowing audio to be played in a single room or throughout the network. An app serves as a central control interface for the speaker network, while connectivity with existing digital audio collections is also offered.

LG has yet to reveal pricing or release details for the audio products.